The U.N. Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities today adopted unanimously a British resolution defining the term minority as “only those in non-dominant groups in a population which possessed and wished to preserve the traditions and characteristics markedly different from those of the rest of the population.”
The Subcommission heard a dissenting opinion on the resolution from Dr. Issac Lewin, representing the Agudas Israel World Organization, who stated the view that the proposal had loopholes that might compromise its purpose. By excluding those who “seek complete identity” with the dominant population, he said, the “age-old formula of divide-and-rule” could be used through the utilization of differences within the minority groups themselves. Dr. Lewin thought it would be enough to accept the fact of a minority and treat such a minority on a level of complete identity with the majority group.
Moses Moskowitz of the Consultative Council of Jewish Organizations told the Subcommission that any attempt to formulate the rights of minorities in terms which go beyond the scope of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the draft Covenant of Human Rights was bound to “frustrate” the purposes of the Subcommission. He recommended separate, supplementary or multilateral agreements to cover rights and privileges which go beyond the scope of the Declaration.
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